Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/257

Rh. He went a second time, but found his retreat cut off, the door between the cage and the shanty having been shut. Seeing at the same moment the attendant armed with the dreadful gun reappear, the monkey understood at once that he was lost, jumped furiously at the closed door, tried to escape through every corner, and, finding that flight was impossible, lay down trembling, and awaited the deadly bullet.

The ape holds himself far above the other animals, and endeavors to make them understand it. My baboon showed her superior standing by tormenting every other animal in the house without any reason or the slightest provocation. I had an old dog whose temper had been spoiled by age, and which lived in open war with every creature in the house. My baboon picked it out as an object for her tricks. When the dog was taking its siesta, the ape would crawl cautiously near, seize the animal by the tail, and, jumping back, give it an awful jerk. The dog, roused from slumber, flew into a violent passion, and went howling and barking for the ape, who quietly watched him, and aggravated his excitement by patting the floor with her hands. As soon as the dog was near enough to reach her, she made a jump upon his back, and again squeezed his tail. These successive insults made the dog nearly frantic; he foamed and howled, but, the more excited he grew, the worse the monkey tormented him. Finally, the old hypochondriac, seeing the uselessness of trying to chastise the foe of his rest, marched off with his tail between his legs whenever the monkey showed her face.

The sagacity and docility of the Cynopithecini, wonderful as they are, can not be compared with the intelligence of the Anthropomorpha, especially the chimpanzee, the gorilla, the orang-outang, and others. I have closely observed several individuals of the family, allowed them to play with my children, and cared for their training and education, and have drawn astonishing results from my studies. These monkeys are creatures which one treats involuntarily like men, or at least like children. The orang-outangs are melancholic and not very sympathetic with men; the variety of the pongos, to which the chimpanzee belongs, is jovial and by far the most intelligent. Their voice is pure and plain, and, while it can not be denied that the voice of the gibbons sounds more melodious and constitutes a veritable song, that of the chimpanzee is a formal language. All the sounds are fully accentuated, and the observer soon understands the meaning of the different modulations, while children, playing with the animal, catch+ at once the sense of its utterances.

It is really impossible to treat the chimpanzee like an animal; his character and general behavior show so much of humanity that men are induced to commune with him in the same way as with their equals. In captivity he is perfectly conscious of his position, and subordinates himself willingly to the superior mental gifts and capacities